THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If the hike in petrol prices is unsettling, the public has found the hartal mode of protest equally unpalatable, as normal life was badly hit by the two hartals. Day-to-day activities were stalled as the hartal in the District called by the Left organisations on Saturday was followed on Monday by the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the LDF and the BJP, the capital city being exempted from none. Though essential services were exempted from both, the low turnout of patients in the hospitals testified to the inconvenience caused to the public in seeking these services. The single respite between the strike and the hartal having fallen on Sunday, the patients due for admission and discharge were held up for three days in a row. Said Dr H V Easwer, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery,“On both the days, the hospital witnessed a very thin crowd of patients as opposed to the heavy rush on normal days. New admissions of inpatients did not take place, and more importantly, patients who were due to be discharged from the hospital could not go home.” The extended weekend also affected the running of banks, causing much difficulty to the public. The upcoming closed holiday for banks on Wednesday owing to Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi, has turned into a cause of worry for the hapless citizens. Though the employees had marked their attendance in most banks on both Saturday and Monday, many had to be the closed down owing to the attacks of hartal supporters. The State Bank of Travancore was forced to shut down 31 of its branches in the outskirts of the city. The Kattakkada Branch of State Bank of Travancore had to be shut down shortly after opening on both Saturday and Monday when hartal supporters began pelting stones at the building. One of the managers of the branch said,“They were pelting stones indiscriminately at every window. Luckily, none of the employees sustained any injuries. But, we pulled down the shutters of the branch ATM also since the glass door could easily be damaged. We have reported the incidents to the Kattakkada Police Station.” Jai Kumar, the Assistant General Manager in charge of Region II, under whose jurisdiction the Kattakkada branch falls, was evidently irritated at the loss of another working day when we contacted him over the phone. “How can we function when nobody is giving us any protection? All my officers were present in every branch and yet, all the 31 branches under my charge remained closed on both the days.” The disgruntled officer listed some of the shut down branches, more to himself than us,- “Nedumangad, Neyyattinkara, Vizhinjam, Balaramapuram, all were closed down,” and hung up abruptly.
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